This paper seeks to develop an understanding of the issues that public administrators should strive to provide in ethical practices and governance thus allowing distinctive administrative and social traditions that each country possess to flourish. Significant changes and continuities in the realm of government in contemporary China and Malaysia will be drawn upon. Recent developments have brought a sense of urgency in contrast to complacency with the status quo. This paper reviews pertinent administrative and ethic issues related to both countries and whether the administrators engage in sustaining the reform agenda while still maintaining the professional capacity and flexibility of administrators when re-delegating responsibly within changing institutional settings. public administration, state, policy, administrative reforms, governance

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Re-Conceptualising Notions of Chinese-ness in a Southeast Asian Business cum Societal Context

Jacobsen, Michael(København, 2006)

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Abstract:

This paper explores the role of the Chinese in a Southeast Asian business cum societal context; from different approaches towards Chinese-ness over different notions of intra- and inter-ethnic relation ending up with a critique of the idea of a Chinese diaspora in a Southeast Asian context. The paper furthermore argues that a culturalist reading of Southeast Asian Chinese modes of engaging in capitalist practices and societal entrenchments constitute a deception that produces a variety of stereotypes of Chinese-ness thus disregarding the complexity and dynamic developments within the ethnic Chinese community region-wise. Finally, in relation to Chinese business practices in a Southeast Asian context the paper suggests that cultural notions of guanxi and xinyong do not form a basis for doing business the Chinese way, only options, that intra-ethnic relations do not play an important role in transnational Chinese linkages, and that contemporary conceptions of Chinese identity are always negotiated with the dominant ‘other’ so as to secure the construction of an economic ‘room’ or space from where business can be conducted in an overall societal acceptable manner.
Key words: Ethnic Chinese, diaspora, entrepreneurship, ethnicity, identity

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With China’s rapid economic progress and steady increase in its international
influence, China has gradually embarked on the soft power idea and has made
developing its soft power as its national strategy. We argue that China’s soft
power strategy is in accordance to Chinese Confucian culture and political value
and fits well with its grand strategy of peaceful rise. Based on existing
conceptualizations of soft power, we expanded the sources of soft power to six
pillars: cultural attractiveness, political values, development model, international
institutions, international image, and economic temptation. We also identified
three channels for wielding soft power: formal, economic, and cultural
diplomacies. Putting all the basics together, we present an integrative model of
soft power. Accordingly, we analyze the sources and limits of China’s soft
power and suggest how to improve it.

It is a received opinion that China’s emergence as a regional and global power is the most pivotal transformation underway in East Asia. China’s enhanced economic standing in Asia has given her new political influence in the region as her trade with the neighbouring states, in particular the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to her south, has been expanding rapidly in recent years. The stunning economic growth of China has created tremendous business opportunities and signed deals has been drawing increasing volume of foreign investment into this Asian giant that was described to have shaken the world – not with her armies, but with her factories. Whether this market is really that huge with potential as has often been presumed and taken for granted is today a topic hotly debated all over the world. With increasing number of foreign companies setting up their businesses in China and the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area – projected to be the world’s largest FTA covering 1.7 billion consumers with a combined GDP of US$2 trillion and to be completed within ten years from the setting of its framework agreement in November 2002 – poised to become the core of a broader East Asian economic zone in years to come, this paper attempts to explore the implications, opportunities and challenges arising with the establishment of the ACFTA, the achievement, prospect and challenges with respect to the Early Harvest Program (EHP) and Agreement on Trade in Goods (TIG), potential competition arising from the free flow of goods, impacts on growth, production sharing, possible trade diversion effects and institutional and other factors in market penetration, within the context of both global business linkages and domestic market nexus in the light of the expanding China-Malaysian bilateral trade and China’s deepening partnership with ASEAN.
Keywords: China, ASEAN, Malaysia, CAFTA/ACFTA, trade, investment

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China is a latecomer to preferential trading agreements (PTAs), choosing to complete its accession to the WTO before embarking on negotiations for preferential agreements. Since 2001, China has become a very active player in such agreements, currently having concluded treaties or being in the process of negotiating them with close to 30 partners. China’s approach to PTAs is characterized by pragmatism; rather than following the American and European practices of using a template for all partnerships, China has been willing to tailor agreements to the specific relationships it is pursuing. Like other governments, China has a mixture of motives in pursuing PTAs. In some relationships, diplomatic/strategic considerations are paramount. In others, China seeks to pursue various economic interests, one of the most significant of which has been security of supply of raw materials. China’s various motivations in PTAs are examined through three case studies: the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement with Hong Kong; the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area; and the negotiation of a PTA with Australia.

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China’s "soft power" re-emergence in Southeast Asia Johannes Dragsbaek Schmidt Associate Professor Research Center on Development and International Relations Aalborg University Email. jds@ihis.aau.dk ABSTRACT Globalization is rapidly changing the overall structure of the international division of labor with the shift of services and manufacturing from the old industrialized economies to the new emerging giants - the global office platform in India and the global factory floor in China. This dislocation in production, services and manufacturing signifies a challenge which might be more important, but nevertheless part and parcel of the inherent imbalances in the world economy. Until recently there has been much academic and layman attention on over-production, growing inequalities, the increasing North-South gap, the roaring conflicts over energy and raw materials including oil and water, turbulence and crisis in the international financial system, and not least the fact that the present phase of capitalism has led to jobless growth in the established core economies in Europe and the United States. The question for the international political economy is where and how do countries like India and China fit in?
Keywords: Globalisation, Regionalism, Bilateralism, Diaspora, USA, China, Southeast Asia

This paper discusses three scenarios concerning China’s recent trade negotiations and relations with the United States and the European Union. Chinese commentators and academics are sure that their country ‘is firmly on the path of greater integration with the global economy’ and that this is ‘a path that has provided great benefits for China and for the world in general.
However, they are also be well aware of the problems associated with entering a global economy where free trade/level playing field market principles have not ended either agricultural subsidies or import quotas on manufactured goods. Indeed, as argued in this paper, measures taken in the name of neo-liberal free market ideals have, ironically, spawned an ever-growing mass of quotas imposed by the EU and the US on the importation of Chinese clothing, footwear and textiles.
Keywords: China, subsidiaries, WTO, USA, EU

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China is now the world’s second largest oil-consuming country after the U.S.. Its global efforts to secure oil imports to meet increasing domestic demand have profound implications for international relations in the Asia-Pacific region. China’s rising oil demand and its external quest for oil have thus generated much attention. As China’s overseas oil quest intensifies, will China clash with the U.S. and other western countries’ interests in Africa, and how does it look at this rivalry? Will China disrupt the U.S. and its allies’ foreign policy and the world order? China, oil strategy, African oil, U.S., energy rivalry

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Denmark was among the first countries in the world to recognize the People’s Republic of China. The created a good foundation for the development of a special relationship between China and Denmark, culminating in Prime Minister, Poul Hartling’s meeting with Mao in October 1974 and characterized by further intensification of political, economic and cultural relations from the beginning of the 1980s. The recent agreement to establish a joint Sino-Danish University Centre in Beijing constitutes yet another high point. However, there have also been incidents of tension and conflict. This paper will especially address three of these incidents: the “cartoon crisis” of August 1967, the Danish criticism of China’s human rights record in the spring of 1997, and the controversy relating to the Dalai Lama’s visit to Denmark in May 2009. It is argued that the costs of pursuing a policy towards China based on normative considerations have become too high and is difficult to harmonize with a new Danish foreign policy of active internationalism.

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The focus of this paper is on the strategies applied by Singapore-Chinese businesses upon failing in their China business ventures. It has been argued that both the increase of Singapore ventures into China and the failures are due to either cultural issues (misinterpretation of ‘shared ethnicity’) or economic factors (differences in economic practices). Singapore businessmen apply inclusive strategies combining Western management styles with Chinese ways of doing business in order to reduce the risk involved with investments across national borders into China. Though largely successful, this strategy entails its own risks. Based on 10 case studies, this paper discusses the ways in which Singapore Chinese entrepreneurs respond upon failing in China and the strategies they develop to re-find their comfort zone for transnational business ventures.
Keywords: Chineseness, Ethinicity, Entrepreneurship, Singapore, China, Business Strategies.

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This chapter try to highlight some key elements of Chinese thinking described from a cultural and philosophical perspective starting with explaining the background for Chinese philosophy, mainly Confucianism followed by central concepts such as holism (ying/yang) and a discussion of the concept of change that appears to be somewhat unique because of the central position change occupies in the Chinese philosophy. More specific, but still important concepts like face, guanxi, the Middle way and paradoxes way are also elaborated on. For reference comparison is now and then made to western philosophy when it is found to clarify Chinese thought. Comparative philosophy brings together philosophical traditions that have developed in relative isolation from one another and that are defined quite broadly along cultural and regional lines -- Chinese versus Western is here chosen, but it is not to indicate that similar phenomena might not have appeared in other places in the world if not stated explicitly.

Although China is not a federal country, its public finance system does carry features of fiscal federalism. Since 1949, although the central government has consistently sought to exercise strong control over the country, it has at times done so by decentralist rather than centralist policies. The Dengist policies since economic reform began, for example, have had a strongly decentralist element, with continuing devolvement of control to the provincial governments, sometimes to such a degree that some observers have commented: "the centre pretends to rule and the provinces pretend to be ruled". This is also a period that witnessed the revival of old regionalisms, as well as the creation of new regionalisms brought about by increased local autonomy, rapid economic growth and increasingly globalizing trade and business linkages. While the oft-cited "China deconstructs" scenario seems at present far-fetched, the challenges posed by central-peripheral conflicts, ethnic resource contest and ethnoterritorial aspirations are real, in particular as they are being exacerbated by the country’s "retreat from equality�? and growing interregional economic disparity. In the light of these daunting exigencies, this paper explores the political economy of regional development in China, focusing on the intricate link between the country’s ethnic diversity and the role of the State in the economy, as the Asian giant warily enters a new stage of economic reform.
Keywords: China, regionalism, ethnic diversity, inequalities, uneven development, regional disparities

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The purpose of this paper is to analyze strategic policy implications arising from possible threats and opportunities in the face of the emergence of China as an economic powerhouse. The focus of the paper is not on the regional approach through mainly regional co-operations but more on policy strategies and responses at the national level. Depending on their degree of national economic development, economic structure and comparative advantage, eight strategic positionings have been identified. Of these eight positionings, direct competition is considered as an unwise move, considering China being endowed with relatively cheap labour resources. Together with its huge domestic market which can serve as a magnet for direct foreign investment, competition in attracting FDI can be a daunting task for most to the Southeast Asian countries. Instead, competition based on niche areas through branding, for instance provides a feasible alternative. The other alternative is to avoid direct competition by upgrading its economy, venturing into those areas where China has no comparative advantage as well as looking inward for sources of growth. Others may adopt ‘connecting’ strategies such as complementing or supplementing the Chinese economy by meeting China’s increasing demand for natural resources or exploiting its huge domestic market. Still others may explore the possibilities of forging strategic alliance with China in the global market or playing the role of a middleman between China the West.

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The purpose of the paper is to examine the economic impact of China on the Southeast Asian countries, mainly in terms of trade and investment. The paper attempts to examine whether the rise of China poses a threat to Southeast Asia as a region in the area of international trade, especially competition in the third markets. Can they be comrades rather than competitors in international market? Secondly, the paper also questions the concentration of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China implies a diversion of FDI away from the region. Are the FDI in China and Southeast Asian region complement each other in the international division of labour? On the other hand, the increasing role of China as an international trader and global investor provides an opportunity for Southeast Asia countries to integrate with the Chinese economy. The huge domestic market of China also provides vast opportunities for investment, especially through connections of their respective ethnic Chinese businesses in the region. In return, Southeast Asian countries, through their respective ethnic groups can also play a middleman role between China and the West, as well as between China and India together with the Middle East.

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The study investigates the efficiency of local public educational expenditure of 31 provinces in China during 2005-2010, using the Slack-based Measurement (SBM) directional distance function. The results show that public educational expenditure is the most efficient in eastern China, followed by middle and western areas. The inefficiency can be explained mostly by the number of master graduates, while the impacts of the number of undergraduates and graduates from secondary school are
also significant. Additionally, bootstrap method is applied to explore the contextual factors influencing the efficiency. The results suggest that economic development and urbanization process increase the efficiency, while the state-owned industry obstructs the development.

Primarily due to the large gaps in economic and institutional contexts between
the developed and emerging markets, business model innovation (BMI) at the
subsidiary level plays an important role for the success of small and mediumsized
firms (SMEs) from the developed markets operating in the emerging
markets as top-down venture. While some studies claim that the direct
involvement of headquarters (HQ) of SMEs in the activities of their subsidiaries
is essential, surprisingly little is known about how HQ specifically facilitates BMI
at the subsidiary level, especially in the context of top-down venture. Adopting
the method of comparative and longitudinal case study, we tracked the BMI
process of six SMEs from Denmark operating in China. The emergent
framework indicates that entrepreneurial aspiration and flexibility at the HQ level
2
Asia Research Centre, CBS, Copenhagen Discussion Paper 2013-42
are two primary facilitators of BMI at the subsidiary level via the mechanisms of
commitment and cooperation. We also found that BMI performance would
influence the two facilitators in a feedback loop. Hence, we can contribute to the
literatures on international entrepreneurship and strategic entrepreneurship by
integrating the two previously separated research streams via their shared
theme of accelerated learning. In particular, this study helps solve the puzzle
concerning fast and successful international venture.

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The main aim of this article is to identify key external and internal factors that are
capable of impacting and thus influencing directly or indirectly state performance in
Southeast Asia with special emphasis on Myanmar, Vietnam and Singapore. The
theoretical aim is to develop a framework for partly being able to delineate some
external boundaries for state manoeuvring and partly delineate the internal size of the
space or ‘room’ that conditions state performance in an international cum national
context respectively. On the basis of the above this article thus argues that the state is
sandwiched between external and internal factors as the two respectively define the
outer boundaries and internal size of the room in which the state has to perform.

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Identity formation is probably one of the most discussed aspects of strategic positioning within anthropology, sociology and political science. In general notions of identity have been based on either an absolutist or primordial understanding of belonging or a constructionalist view in which social and political positioning in terms of identity formation are governed by a given societal context. This paper bases its understanding of identity formation on the latter approach. This means that depending of context individuals have several different although related identities to choose between when manoeuvring in a complex and dynamic social environment. Identity formation, achieved or ascribed, and its various forms of externalisation are thus negotiated and not absolute. The dynamic behind this notion of identity formation is individual agency strategically manipulating social, economic and political positioning in a given societal setup. To illustrate the complexities and in this case negative ramifications of social engineering the article focuses on inter-ethnic relations and industrial development in Penang, Malaysia.

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The paper aims to address the question whether the dynamic of autoworker unionism in South Korea and Malaysia was conditioned by, and eventually also influenced the globalization processes in the local auto industry? The conclusion is a contextualized "yes", and the core argument is the following: The financial crisis in 1997 was the dramatic peak of financial globalization in East Asia in the 1990s, and it did accelerate the existing trend in Korea towards centralized unionism in the auto industry, while it suspended the trend in the Malaysian auto industry towards decentralized unionism. Although the Korean and Malaysian unions were affected by the financial crisis from different structural and strategic positions, and were exposed to different national policies and corporate strategies of crisis management, the Korean unions and Malaysian unions generally followed, respectively, a more radical and militant and a more pragmatic and moderate strategy. In the global-local perspective we face two paradoxes. The first paradox is that in spite of the difference in union ideology, the outcome in terms of industrial relations (IR) institutions was rather similar in the sense that the auto industry contained a mixture of industrial and enterprise unions and formal or informal federations of these unions, and that collective bargaining was by and large undertaken bilaterally at the enterprise level. This situation was generated by a dynamic, which took the Malaysian system down from a centralized IR system within the low technology assembly industry (the globally subordinated local OEMs) to a rather decentralized IR system within the SOE-MNC controlled industry. The Korean system became more centralized through the confrontations between radical enterprise unions and authoritarian employers and authorities within an auto industry, which over time become much more indigenized, technologically advanced, export-oriented and diversified into multiple auto manufacturers and an under-wood of component suppliers. Yet, in both auto industries the large enterprise unions resisted organizational centralization, which could impede their autonomy. Due to the strength of unions of the market leading firms a breakthrough did happen neither in Korea nor in Malaysia, although the Koreans were a step ahead of the Malaysians having established a federation of metalworkers unions, including the important autoworkers unions. The second paradox is that the radicalism of the Korean autoworker unions was maintained during 1990s globalization of the auto industry, while radicalism was abandoned by the Malaysian autoworker unions in favor of union pragmatism, when the indigenization of the Malaysian auto industry unfolded since the early 1980s and a local auto supplier industry had been formed. This cross-country difference is partly explained by the different position held by the Korean and Malaysian auto companies in the global and local auto value chain. The radicalism and effectiveness of Korean autoworker unions sustained the development of dynamic efficiency among Korean auto manufacturing firms. In the same way, the intra-industry differences in wages and working conditions among auto manufacturing firms and components supplier firms were also related to the stratification of the domestic auto value chain, and this uneven distribution of benefits created obstacles of centralized unionization and collective bargaining. The centralized IR system in Malaysia evolved in an auto industry composed primarily of firms assembling imported CKD kits of components. The inequality of employment conditions between auto manufacturers and component suppliers was a driver of the strategy of centralized unionism and collective bargaining in Korea, while the inequality was not perceived as that significant by the Malaysian industrial union, since they had been dealing with these problems by the early 1990s.
Keywords: Globalisation, trade unions, automobile industry, global value chain theory, East Asia, Malaysia, South Korea.

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(1) The essence of Yin-Yang is that yin and yang are contrary yet
complementary.
阴阳的本质是阴阳是相生相克的关系。
(2) This contrary yet complementary relationship can be described by three
characteristics of Yin-Yang: nonexclusivability, transformability, and
coopetitionability. Nonexclusivability means that anything contains yin
and yang elements and neither yin nor yang elements can be excluded
because within both elements there is a seed of the opposite element.
Due to the existence of a seed of the opposite element, the yin and yang
elements can be mutually transformed when the opposite seed grow to a
certain size. Due to this possible growth of the inside opposite element,
the relationship between yin and yang and their inside opposite element
is one of competition and cooperation, i.e. coopetition. When the
configuration ratio of an element’s opposite seed is within the range of
1% to 25%1, their relationship is more co-operative than competitive, and therefore there is more synergy than tradeoff between them. The closer
the ratio is to 25%, the stronger the synergy. When the ratio is within the
range of 25% to 49%, their relationship is more competitive than
cooperative, and therefore there is more tradeoff than synergy between
them. The closer the ratio is to 49%, the stronger the tradeoff.
阴阳的相生相克关系可以描述为三个特性：不可排除性、相互转化性、竞
争合作性。不可排除性是指任何事物都包含阴阳两个对立元素，二者之任
何一个均不可能被排除在我，这是因为在阴或阳元素内部天然的包含着对
立元素的种子。正是因为这个种子的天然存在，阴和阳元素可以互相转
化，这种转化发生在对立元素种子成长到一定程度的时候。正是由于这种
对立元素的成长可能性，阴或阳元素和它内部的对立元素之间的关系是既
竞争又合作的。当内部的对立元素占总体元素的力量比例在1%到25%之
间时，两者的关系是合作多于竞争，越靠近25%这个点，这种合作的协同
效果也强烈。当这个搭配比例处于25%到49%之间时，它们的关系将是
竞争多于合作，也就是他们更多互相排斥而非互相促进。当这个比例越靠
近49%，这种排斥效应越强烈。